Mirror, Quantum Mirror
by ValaMalDoran-Jackson
Summary: With his future in doubt, Jack O'Neill must do the unthinkable.
1. Chapter 1

"Mom, Gracie's throwing up again! It's green! Last time, it was red! She's okay, right?" Eleven year old Aria O'Neill shouted.

Samantha Carter O'Neill hurried into the bathroom where the four year old was hunched over the toilet, whimpering softly.

"Ari, go take care of Hunter, don't let him fall down the stairs. Take him to the playroom and keep him there until I come get you two." She ordered, giving her eldest daughter a gentle shove between the shoulder blades to get her started.

"The things I do for this family. I should get paid more. Really." Aria grumbled under her breath as she trudged up the stairs to her little brother. Without stopping, she took his extended hand and guided him into the playroom that, when the right code was entered on the keypad next to the door, turned the large room and connected bathroom into a combination panic room/nuclear fallout shelter. All three children knew the code. They also knew that unless Mommy or Daddy opened the door, they weren't allowed to leave. The small pantry was stocked with child friendly foods and drinks, water, medicines, and sundry other items the O'Neill children might need for a prolonged stay.

Sadly, it was used at least once a week as the family was attacked by rogue groups of humans.

Earth had been taken over years before the children were born. The Stargate had been reopened, against Jack O'Neill's wishes, allowing the Goa'uld free reign over Earth when the planet came under the scrutiny of Apophis. The military wasn't equipped to handle the onslaught, and within a matter of months the planet was brought under Goa'uld dominion. Sam and Jack, coming back from an offworld mission, they found the base under attack and had attempted to retake their home, only to fail miserably. They fled under Hammond's orders taking a handful of survivors with them as they found places to stay that wouldn't arouse the attentions of the Jaffa.

Once Aria was born, Sam had refused to move around, wanting to give her daughter a life of stability. Jack had added rooms to his cabin in Minnesota, a second floor and a secret entrance through the basement. With the arrival of Hunter, Sam was convinced they had done the right thing in setting down roots. Then Grace came, and things were perfect.

But the Jaffa were never far off. The children knew where to run if something bad happened to their parents.

Jack found her in the basement that night, staring into the Quantum Mirror, stolen from the base.

"They wouldn't be scared anymore." She told him quietly.  
>"Not until it's needed. Remember? We told Ari what to look for, she knows the drill. She'll get the kids to safety. But only if it's needed. Until then, they have the panic room." He slipped an arm around her waist and squeezed gently, ever mindful of the baby bump she sported.<p>

"At least not until Baby Ryan makes his debut." Sam agreed after a moment.

"Sam. We'll be fine. The Jaffa never come up this far north, it's too cold for them." Jack gently turned her to face him, aware of how worried she was.

"Siler saw a group of them yesterday. A hundred miles from us. They're getting closer every day." She told him then.

"I'll remind the kids of the boundary line. Warn them of the patrols. Sam, remember, we wanted them to have as normal a childhood as possible, and we can't do that if we jump everytime we get scared. We'll teach them nothing but fear. So, tonight, let's fire up the fireplace and cook some popcorn, drink something warm, and have a conversation night. The baby's due any day, we want to spend as much time with the older ones as we can. Normal life. That's what we agreed on when we found out about Ari." Jack gently guided her back up the stairs into the living room where the children were sprawled around the carpet, reading or working quietly on homework.

"Mom, you okay? Baby Ryan okay?" Aria asked.

"Yeah sweetheart. We're fine. Mommy just needed to do a bit of stuff downstairs before this, that's all. Make sure things were sorted, that sort of thing." Sam smiled at her eldest daughter, wondering if the little girl would be able to handle the strain of raising her siblings in a post apocalyptic world.

"Grace, what're you and Hunter working on?" Jack seated himself on the couch and let the two clamber up beside him, their workbooks in hand.

"Calculus." Grace sighed heavily.

"Coloring." Hunter placed half of the coloring book in Jack's lap, sharing the markers. "Homework done?" Jack asked, tweaking the boy's nose.

"Yep. Finished it before dinner. It was really easy." Hunter replied with a grin.

"Did I ever tell you that you take after your mom?" Jack teased.

"All the time." The giggle was infectious, Grace laughed at his response as well, her little nose crinkling.

"You can finish your homework tomorrow, if you want Grace. You're not having school on Saturday." Sam added. The four year old sat up and raised an eyebrow.  
>"I've got three more, then I'm done. I want to finish, so I can go fishing with Daddy." She replied hopefully. Before they could answer, a soft creak on the porch outside the door startled them all into silence. Jack snapped out the lamp, drowning the room in inky blackness. He heard the children scrabble for their night vision gear, Aria rounding up the younger two silently and herding them for the panic room upstairs. Drawing a gun from a hidden place, he felt Sam at his elbow with her own weapon drawn. Another creak from the porch outside, a soft thump as whoever was out there dropped off the end and began to circle the house. Waving her to the back door, Jack waited until she was in place before opening the front door and slipping outside. Creeping across the yard, he caught sight of the trespasser standing up to full height to look into the back window. Moving closer, Jack realized the man was young, at least twenty or so, and filthy. Thin beyond the point of health, almost emaciated as bones stuck out from under his skin. The boy rounded the corner of the house, froze, and backed up a step, Sam's weapon pointed at his forehead. Jack slid into place behind him, bringing his weapon to bear on the stranger's head as well.<p>

"Mom, Dad, don't shoot. It's me, Charlie."


	2. Chapter 2

Sam instantly dropped her gun hand, using her other to wrap around Charlie's neck and draw him to her for a hug.  
>"We thought you were dead, Siler told us you were taken months ago! Inside, inside, we need to get you cleaned up. Jack, put the weapons away. The kids will be so happy to see you again! Are you hungry? What am I saying, look at you, of course you're hungry!" She blurted in a rush, releasing him and stepping back, letting her eyes run over him.<p>

"You okay?" Jack asked when they were back inside the house.

"Yeah, pretty much. I have information, we need to talk. Kids upstairs?" He glanced toward the stairs, Sam nodded once.

"Good. The Jaffa are coming. They're almost an hour behind me. But they know you guys are here. They're coming, like it or not, they're coming." Charlie began. Sam quickly grabbed food from the refrigerator and stuffed it into the microwave, uncaring of the time she put it on for.

"Mom, there's no time. We have to leave." Charlie stilled her movements easily, catching her as she whirled around the kitchen.

"I'm not going with you, I promised Siler I'd be back later, it was the only way he'd let me go now, I have to get back tonight. They need me." Charlie caught her arm, gently pulling her a halt when she turned away. Sam bit her lip, refusing to show weakness. Tears rose in her eyes when Jack moved to stand beside her.

"Mom. We need to think of the kids." Charlie continued. She nodded, then dragged him down to her level for another hug, clinging to him like a lifeline.

"Just come with us to see the younger ones off?" She asked when she released him.

"Of course. Ari would kill me if I didn't say goodbye. You know her." He grinned weakly.

Jack whistled loudly, a sound all the children were trained to come running in obedience to. As they scampered down the stairs, he headed them off and silently pointed to the basement. Aria's small face grew worried.

"Now? We have to go now?" She asked, hoisting her little sister onto her hip and guiding Hunter ahead of her easily with a hand on his shoulder.

"No, this is just a drill." Jack replied tightly. Nodding once at his wife, he met his eldest son's eyes.

"Take them down and run through the drill with them. Make sure they know what to do." He ordered.

Aria bit her lower lip. This wasn't a drill. Charlie was here. But Charlie was supposed to be fighting the Jaffa.

This wasn't a drill.

Sam slid into the small transporter device, her blue eyes full of tears. If he hadn't known better, Jack would have thought it was from fear.

"We're giving them a better life, remember? We chose this for them, so they would grow up. All of them." He told her, gripping her outstretched hand for just a second before he pressed a button on the side of the machine Sam was lying under, shielding his eyes from the bright glow that surrounded her for only a brief instant. A second later, the incubator next to him beeped with the sound of an infant's heartbeat. Shutting the transport device off, he opened the incubator and lifted the baby out.

"Is he okay?" Sam asked, slipping off the table and moving to stare down at her son. "He's great. I checked the levels before I took him out, everything's normal. Let's get him to the Mirror." Jack handed her the baby and ushered her out of the room. He wanted to hold his son once more, but knew it would only make the pain of separation worse when the time came. Sam needed to hold the baby for now, needed the tangible reminder of why she was giving up her children. Life would go one for the O'Neill's, he would see to it.

His throat tight, Jack paused at the doorway to the small room that contained the mirror. Aria, Hunter, Grace, and Charlie clustered around it, Charlie using the time to say his goodbyes to his younger siblings. When Hunter grabbed him around the legs, Charlie lifted him up and squeezed him tenderly. "Guys, meet Ryan Anaximus Jacob Conner Matthew Carter O'Neill, your newest little brother." Jack called. The children gathered around. "Make sure they put his full name on the birth certificate. Tell me his name again." She urged her daughter.

"Ryan Anaximus Jacob Conner Matthew Carter O'Neill. Dad said this was just a drill." Aria responded, looking for all the world like her father in that moment as her small features pinched with worry.

"Tell him that we love him. Tell him everyday." Sam continued.

"I will. He won't ever forget it. Dad said this was just a drill though." Aria replied. Jack gave her a hug as Sam began the process to send the children through the gate. Gathering the other children to him, he held on as long as he could. Above them in the main floor of the house, he could hear something clumping across the floor, knew the Jaffa had made their way into the house. Charlie had barely reached them in time. Hot tears rose in his eyes as he released his children and took a step back.

Aria knew why her parents couldn't keep them. Had known since she was three. When she saw their fear, however, she was uncertain. She barely knew her mother, not that Sam was a bad mother, just…preoccupied with other things. Always building things the children might need in case the mirror didn't work and they were alone in a Jaffa controlled world. Instructing them in ways of self defense and never pulling a punch because a Jaffa wouldn't go easy on a child. Teaching them what plants were edible and which would brew up into a poison capable of taking down an army with only one drop in the water supply. Toughening up the children to live without her if necessary.

And now, now Sam was sending them away.

Her father, Jack, was a being she desperately craved to know, but he was barely around for anyone, much less had time for each child separately.

And now Aria understood why her parents had distanced themselves from her when she was younger.

The separation was much easier if they didn't love her.

Jack gently pushed Hunter through the mirror, ignoring the child's protests, then motioned for Grace to step through. She did so obediently, her tears breaking his heart. Without a word, he took Ryan from Sam, handed the baby to Aria, and watched her go. Then, he moved swiftly, holding Charlie to him tightly for several seconds, blinking back sudden tears. When he let go, he took a mere few seconds to look at his eldest son.

"Take care of them for me." He murmured, then put all his strength into one mighty shove that sent Charlie reeling backward through the mirror. Then, Jack raised his hands in surrender as Jaffa burst through the door behind him. A grin tugged his mouth upward as Ba'al's first prime approached, intent on getting to the mirror. Intent on getting to the children.

Jack had done it. He had kept the children safe, kept them all together, and kept them alive.

Too late, the Jaffa noticed the string Jack was clutching in his off hand, followed it down and across the floor, tied to the grenade pin. Surrounded by mounds of dynamite.

Yanking as hard as he could, Jack dove at the fleeing Jaffa as the cabin exploded into nothing.


End file.
